1. Field of Art
The present disclosure generally relates to the field of undercover operations and more specifically to managing multiple identities using a single phone.
2. Background of the Invention
Police officers and other agents “operators” oftentimes conduct multiple investigations at the same time during the course of their duties. In many cases, these investigations require the operator to use phones to call, send short message service “SMS” messages (including multimedia messaging service “MMS” messages and proprietary messaging services such as BLACKBERRY messages “BBM”), or otherwise communicate with various contacts under a fake identity. Oftentimes, criminals and other individuals can ascertain information about the operator or the device used by the operator from data associated with the communication. Accordingly, operators frequently use multiple telephonic devices to manage different contacts and protect their identity.
Many operators are issued multiple mobile phones by their agency or department for use with different contacts and for different investigations. For example, the operator may require different phones having different numbers when communicating with different contacts in order to maintain a specific identity or conceal their true identity. Traditionally, the operator would physically require multiple phones or multiple subscriber identity modules (SIM cards) to maintain these different identities.
Use of multiple physical phones present difficulties for the operator in that the operator must carry the correct phone and/or multiple phones at the right time to receive a call or otherwise use the device. Multiple SIM cards are similarly intrusive in that, while they contain all the information required for a given identity, the operator would not receive notifications of calls, etc., incoming to a SIM card unless it was active in a device. Hence, the operator would still require multiple phones to monitor activity on multiple SIM cards. Furthermore, agencies oftentimes lack the ability to issue operators the appropriate devices, SIMs and/or corresponding identities in real time. While these difficulties are discussed with respect to an operator, private individuals (e.g., a business owner) and other entities face similar difficulties when operating multiple devices.